CALENDAR RAFFLE
Sold By: Ray Hodge
Sold To: Carolyn and Judson Greene
Calendar #952
GUESTS
Assistant District Governor Kang Yu
Lisa Lyons and Margarit Leon were guests of Juli Lederhaus
FINES AND RECOGNITIONS
Bill Henning took a holiday to Bermuda to visit family.
Dick Lutts graced the group with a joke about where babies come from.
Juli Lederhaus had an early winter cleaning spree, and prepped her arts & crafts room for the holidays.
Viktoria Talebian's 9 year old daughter is anxiously waiting the angel tags, and is very excited to contribute to the Salvation Army's gift drive.
Mark Leavitt passed around the angel card stack. If you missed it this week, please look out next week, or reach out to Mark.
Malia Griffin apologized to the group for spending the last 10 days in sunny Florida.
Jason Consalvo paid a fine for another Pat's victory!
Liz Bradt was looking for a rug for the literacy group and had her wish answered by Ann Richardson, who donated a rug from her store.
CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS
A reminder to the group: The Early ACT students will be at the meeting next week collecting money for their Change-for-Change campaign will be donated to the Philippines Relief. Bring your piggy banks!
There will be a holiday party next Friday, December 13th at Brenda's home, 51 Lafayette Street, Unit 409, Salem. There is a sign up sheet going around. It will be potluck - bring 1 bottle and 1 dish. She will supply beer and wine.
On December 14th the Wreaths Across America ceremony will be at 12pm at the cemetery. For more details, see Malia.
The DCF Holiday Party will be on December 14th from 12-5pm at the Beverly High School.
On December 31st, New Year's Eve, there will be a meeting and the Speaker Committee is planning a special program. Please feel free to bring guests to join in the celebration.
THIS WEEK'S SPEAKERS
This week, we had 3 speakers from 3 different Salem Rotary sponsored non-profit organizations. Our first speaker was Linda Saris, the Director of Salem Cyberspace. Salem Cyberspace was started in 2002 as a cyber cafe for low-income youth in Salem to drop in and have free access to computers and the internet. The organization has since evolved into a comprehensive educational facility that provides an alternative learning experience to low-income youth in Salem that want to become engaged learners.
The program has strict guidelines for al of the participants who range from grades 6-16 (college seniors). Linda described Salem Cyberspace as a "college access program at heart", meaning their main focus is to get students college-ready, but they have also added a trades program just this year.
Salem Cyberspace disarms the seemingly overwhelming task of applying for and going to college by introducing middle school students to the college experience. They do this by visiting campuses and taking what the call "knowledge trips". The success of the program is evident with 100% high school graduation rate and a 100% college enrollment rate. For more information on Salem Cyberspace, please visit www.salemcyberspace.org.
Our second speaker was Salem Rotary's very own Joanne Scott, the Director at the Salem Boys & Girls Club. Joanne has been a director for 5 years but the club has been thriving in Salem for the last 144 years!
Joanne has a clear passion and appreciation for the work done at the Boys & Girls Club as she even admitted that she has "always wanted to be a child at the club"! The kids at the club range from ages 5-18, and participate in programs that cover the arts, sports, academics, team building, and much more. They have even implemented
what they call the "power hour" where students are required to do homework for a full hour after school. This hour is supported with a staff that can assist the kids with their homework and will even engage the teachers of the students if need be. Joanne also expressed a huge gratitude for the financial support that the Rotary has provided to the Boys & Girls Club. Rotary's support has directly supported the club's Tech Program. For more information, please visit www.bgcgs.org
Jason Silva, the Director of the YMCA of Salem, was our final speaker in our Non-Profit Day on Tuesday. Jason showed us a brief video of the Y's summer camp and the activities in which they participate. He then wowed us by telling everyone that the video was actually completely produced by the teenage students in the Y's media lab! The media lab at the Salem Y was started with the seed money that was provided by the Salem Rotary Club, and has blossomed into a center for students to learn audio/video skills and to develop social media skills that are applicable for business development. The media lab is even reaching out to the local business community to assist with media/video production for small businesses.
Jason also told us about some of the development at the Y and highlighted the $1M renovation that is underway at the Ames Building, which will soon become an Arts Center. For more information, please visit www.northshoreymca.org.
HERO QUOTE:
"We are here to add what we can do, not to get what we can from life, sir."~Sir William Osler
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